National beach wrestling event takes over Carolina Beach sand

Saturday

Apr 27, 2013 at 6:47 PM

The area has been the host of the state championship for the past five years.

By McLeod Brown Sports@StarNewsOnline.com

CAROLINA BEACH | Add beach wrestling to the wave of sand sports taking over Pleasure Island.Complete with the scenic backdrop of a windy, yet sunny afternoon and a choppy ocean, the Beach Wrestling National Championships were held at the Carolina Beach Boardwalk on Saturday afternoon.While this is the first year the national championships have taken place in Carolina Beach, the area has been the host of the state championship for the past five years - something that helped the region in securing the right to host the national tournament."USA Wrestling was looking for a site for our national championships this year," said local director Neal Dorow. "It had been run in Rochester, New York, the previous few years. But, the world championships are going to be in Morocco in May. So they needed to have a national championship and team selection process to select the team for the world championships that will represent the United States."Rochester, New York in April is probably not the place you want to be doing beach wrestling. So we put out the bid, we bid on it, and were rewarded it based on our previous experience."Just like the sport states, competitors wrestle on sand - not mats like typical wrestling matches. And the differences don't stop there.Matches are comprised of one three-minute round, with it only taking two points to win. If the score is tied at the end of the three-minute session, a 30-second overtime is conducted. If no winner is decided after that, the referee picks the winner based on overall performance.Also differing from traditional wrestling, there are no top or bottom starting positions but instead strictly stand-up grappling. There are only two ways to score points. Points are scored by taking your opponent to the ground and causing their body parts - leg or forearm - to touch the sand. Also, if your opponent leaves the ring, then you earn a point.This year's tournament will feature competition in seven age groups: Bantam, Intermediate, Novice, Schoolboy/girl, Cade, Junior, Senior (Men and Women), and Veterans.The top performers in the men's and women's senior division will qualify for the U.S. Beach World Team that will compete in the 2013 FILA World Beach Wrestling Championships in El Jadida, Morocco, May 31-June 2.This unique style of wrestling allows for a wider range of participants as not a lot of experience is required to compete."Beach wrestling was begun by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) as a way of growing the sport, giving it exposure to a broader base of participants and getting more people involved in the sport of wrestling," Dorow said. "It doesn't require a lot of training and endurance or skill so more people can do it. It's meant to be a lot of fun."Started in 2006, the sport is still gaining traction. With nationals taking place in Carolina Beach this year, competitors from all over the country with all different backgrounds came to showcase their skills.Teams came from as far away as Illinois and Arizona to compete on Saturday. In total, about 100 participants wrestled in the tournament - about double the total from the annual state championships.Among those was Kristin Didren, a graduate student at the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky who traveled to Carolina Beach to compete with her husband, David."I'm from California and I'm right by the beach," she said. "I had never seen it before, but thought it was really cool so I wanted to check it out."Didren began traditional wrestling her freshman year of high school, so she was surprised how easy she found beach wrestling."It's only three minutes and two points then you're done," she said. "The circle is a lot smaller and there are no top or bottom positions. It's mostly just take-downs then you're done."This being the first year nationals have been hosted at Carolina Beach, and with the fifth annual state championship taking place on June 22, the sport of beach wrestling will look to use Pleasure Island as a hotbed to build its popularity for many years to come.